The mother of a Wisconsin man who died in 2012 is suing the Pop Warner football organization, saying his suicide was the result of dementia caused by brain injuries he suffered while playing youth football.

Joseph Chernach was 25 when he hanged himself in his mother's shed in Hixton, Wisconsin. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Madison.

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The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court said Chernach suffered from a degenerative brain disease called dementia pugilistica. The suit alleges he got it from playing for four seasons in a Pop Warner league beginning when he was 11.

“No matter what age, this can come on for years after they're done playing,” Debbie Pyka said.

The wrongful death-lawsuit seeks at least $5 million from Pennsylvania-based Pop Warner Little Scholars, the Pop Warner Foundation and their insurance company.

”Don't people know what they're getting into when they play football?” WISN 12 News reporter Ben Hutchison asked the attorney filing the lawsuit.

“We believe that a national organization that promotes football should be held accountable, should be held to a higher standard of knowledge, higher duty of care than parents and certainly an 11-year-old boy,” attorney Gordon Johnson said.

The lawsuit compares football to war.

“It's our belief that football is not really a game. It's combat. It has all the elements of combat. It's very similar to boxing,” Johnson said.

It's that physical pounding over the years, that Chernach's family feels is the reason he's not here.

“I know I'll see him again one day. I don't want him to die in vain. I don't want to lose any more kids to this brain disease,” Pyka said.

Pop Warner issued a statement to WISN 12 News late Friday afternoon saying, "We have implemented significant rule changes and medical protocols as we constantly look at how to make the game as safe as possible for children. In addition, we emphasize heightened coaching and parent education in carrying out these safety measures. While there is incredible sadness in this story, we question the merits of singling out four years of youth football amid a career of sports that lasted through high school."